Scripted opposition to wireless merger raises credibility questions

While attorneys at the Department of Justice spent countless hours investigating the legality of a proposed merger between wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile, publicly filed comments opposing the transaction were piling up at the Federal Communications Commission.

But word-for-word, an overwhelming number of those comments are either completely or partially identical.

The thousands of comments, filed through the FCC’s website, have not gone unnoticed. Sprint Nextel Inc., which ardently opposes the merger, points to the comments as proof average Americans do not want to see AT&T and T-Mobile become one entity.

Many of the most recent comments contain the language, “Don’t let AT&T put our mobile future at risk. Please stand with me and reject such reckless consolidation of the mobile industry.”

Coincidentally, Free Press — a media reform advocacy group — is promoting a feature on its “Take Action” Web page that allows visitors to submit a scripted comment to the FCC.

“AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile would stifle choice and innovation in the market, harm consumers, and lead to higher prices and fewer jobs nationwide,” reads the comment. “Don’t let AT&T put our mobile future at risk. Please stand with me and reject such reckless consolidation of the mobile industry.”

And a search of the FCC website finds that the phrase “Please stand with me and reject” turns up more than 19,000 times.

The Take Action site was launched less than a week before the FCC’s May 31 deadline for filing comments. At the time, it was reported that Free Press sent a mass email to 275,000 subscribers, including a link to the site. From there, visitors could weigh in just by clicking “send.”

The jump from comments filed before the site launched, to comments filed after the site’s inception is staggering, going in just a few days from less than 100 to 10,000.

Some now point to these “robo-comments” as proof of a campaign that makes a lot of noise but is organized by only two or three groups. And for some, the robo-copy raises questions about the credibility of the opposition to what would be a gigantic corporate merger.

Another organization, called CREDO Action — an advocacy arm of telecom company CREDO Mobile — circulated a petition in May asking its members to oppose the merger. CREDO then filed the petitions with the FCC, in increments of between 3,963 to 4,574 names each time. In all, CREDO submitted roughly 35,000 signatures.

CREDO resells Sprint wireless phone service. And in recent years, it has been a significant donor to Free Press.